guantanmofandomcom-20200214-history
Stephen Abraham
Stephen Abraham is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Army Reserve. He is notable because he is the first officer who served with the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants to publicly criticize the operations of the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. His affidavit was key to the United States Supreme Court decision to hear petitions from Guantanamo detainees regarding their detention, and the subsequent decision (Boumediene v. Bush, 2008) that Guantanamo detainees have Habeas rights. Civilian career Abraham currently works for the law firm of Fink & Abraham in Newport Beach, California. Military career Abraham was commissioned in 1981. According to the Boston Globe Abraham's reserve and active duty, since 1982, has been in intelligence. As of June 23, 2007, he is a Lieutenant Colonel. He served with OARDEC from September 2004 through March 2005. The Combatant Status Review Tribunals of the 558 captives then present at Guantanamo lasted from August 2004 through January 2005, and their confirmation by then Secretary of the Navy Gordon England was finished in March 2005. Abraham's affidavit CBS quoted from an affidavit Abraham provided for a habeas corpus appeal on behalf of Fawzi al-Odah: According to the Washington Post Abraham felt compelled to come forward after hearing his former boss, Rear Admiral James M. McGarrah call the Tribunal process "fair". According to the Boston Globe Fawzi al-Odah's lawyers first contacted Abraham after his sister had attended a presentation they had made, and volunteered the information that her brother had been one of the Tribunals officers. The Department of Defense keeps the Tribunal officer's identity a secret. During a telephone interview Abraham defended making the affidavit: The Washington Post reported that Abraham had compared the hearsay evidence the Guantanamo captives faced to "a game of telephone". Paraphrasing Abraham the Associated Press reported: The Washington Post reports: The Boston Globe reports that more senior OARDEC officials met with the Tribunal members to determine "what went wrong" with the case, after they declined to confirm the captive's "enemy combatant" status during their second, extraordinary Tribunal session. mirror David Cynamon, one of al-Odah's lawyers praised Abraham's courage in making the affidavit, but expressed fears that it was "career suicide". Lt. Cmdr. Chito Peppler, responded to the affidavit by claiming that the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatant: Peppler also responded: The Washington Post quotes officials who asked for anonymity who claimed Abraham never raised his concerns with McGarrah, a fact Abraham disputes. According to the Boston Globe, after Abraham sat on a Tribunal he was assigned to serve as a liaison officer with the JTF-GTMO teams who were compiling the allegations against the captives for the Tribunals. They report that Abraham charactized the JTF-GTMO teams he worked with as: A second OARDEC officer comes forward On Friday October 5, 2007 the lawyers for Adel Hassan Hamad filed an affidavit from a second officer who had served with OARDEC. Like Abraham this second officer, whose name was redacted, was also a reservist. Like Abraham he was a lawyer, in civilian life. He wrote: ``"training was minimal"'' -and- ``"the process was not well defined".'' Abraham, was only allowed to sit on one Tribunal. The second officer sat on 49 Tribunals. Interviews Abraham has agreed to be interviewed multiple times. Abraham said that most of his work, and that of his colleagues, was performed in Washington DC. He only traveled to Guantanamo three times. Abraham explained his reservations with calling the allegations in the Summary of Evidence memos "evidence". See also * Colonel Sharon D. Allen References External links * * * * Category:Living people Category:Guantanamo Bay attorneys Category:Guantanamo Bay captives legal and administrative procedures